Dual ring element container closure



July 22, 1958 J. WQDIMMOCK DUAL RING ELEMENT CONTAINER CLOSURE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 4, 1956 INVENTOR.

Hll'i Hll July 22, 1958 J. w. DIMMOICK DUAL RING ELEMENT CONTAINER CLOSURE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Sept. 4, 1956 INVENTOR. JAM-E6 w. DIMMOCJ:

ATTORNEY United States Patent "ice 2,844,276- DUAL R IN G' ELEMENT CONTAINER CLOSURE James- W. Di mnek, Hazelcrest', Illi, assignor to The' Shr-WiifiWillihnis compan Cleveland',- 0hi0, a corpo-- rafion of flhio Application September 4,1956, Serial No. 607,644 2 Gianna (21. 2 20-55 This inventionrelates to an improvement in container closures, wherein the container'is adapted to ause requiring repeated openings and closingasthe contents ofthe container are consumed.

More particularly, this: invention relates to dual element container closures comprising an inner containerstoppering disk element about the periphery of which depend aplurality of flexible fingers adapted toengage a: peripheral groove of a correlated container mouth: and a ringelement adapted to circumscribe and compress said fingers into'a locked positionin and about the peripheral groove below the: container mouth Dualelement container closures of the class to which this improvement relates are described generally in U, 5. Patent 2,045,480, of July 23, 1936.

In order to best understand drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a full front view showing a fragmentary Figure 5 is afragmentary view, partially in section, of"

the second draw inmanufacture of dualring element a.

Figure 6 is a view, partially in section, of the final dual ring after the last operation in its manufacture.

As will be observed generally in the foregoing figures, container having a mouth similar to c, and an inner container-stoppering disk element b have been previously described the art and-have been extensively used in paint cans, for example, over thepast 20 years.

The dual element container closure has been outstandingly useful, but has also sufiered two outstanding drawbacks" dnringits eXte'fisiV applicatiento modern packaging of materials not always completely consumed the first time the container is opened.

The first drawback in the prior are container of the class of interest is that it has been most difficult to adopt the container and dual element closure to purely mechanical capping. U. S. Patent 2,734,673, of February 14, 1956, has described an automatic closure machine which has been used successfully, so long as the exterior bead (corresponding to interior bead 15 is Figure 2 a) is relatively broad in horizontal dimension. Unfortunately, when the bead is made heavy enough to assure fool-proof automatic capping (not requiring the presence of an-operator) there is a tendency for the broad bead, upon jostling the cans against one another during handling and shipping, to cause adjacent can ring elements to be loosened and removed. Losses in goods packed often results.

A second drawback is that when filled containers are the present invention and its improvementover the prior art, I refer first to the 2,844,276 Patented July 22, 1958 stacked in packed cartons in accordance with presentdaywarehousing practices; the load on the top of the individual' container is transferred to the skirted flange 3 lying betweenthe chime 2 of the container and the con tainer mouth 6. At: relatively light loading. the skirted flange3 is-permanently deformed Deformation, in turn, most often lowersonly one side of the container and thestacked and cartoned' goods slide from stacked pallets-.- In turn, so damaged cans are lacking in appeal to the ultimate purchaser of the packaged goods.

It is a-principal object ofthis invention to strengthen containers of the class described by a relatively simplechange in construction of the ring element ofv the dual element container closure.

It' is a further-object of this invention to provide a ring element which will feed through an automatic capping. machine without-jamming the machine due to minor vari-' ations inring diameter.

These and other objects will be more apparent as the description of the invention is developed.

Referringingeneraltot-he drawings, container 1 terminates in itslargest diameter atits' top in chime 2- which consti-utes a plurality of thicknesses of metal-and hence is the strongestpartof container l From chime 1 a, funnel-like skirt member 3 is drawn: inwardly and upwardly'above the chime to lead intoa flat annular'stop 4. Aninwardly drawn peripheral groove=-5 extends upwardly from step 4- to form container mout-h.

containing on the under side thereof a soft gasketin'g,

material 10, toprovide a seal between the metal" surfaces.- Depending-from, the outer periphery of disk S and annulus 9' are a plurality of yield'able fingers-11,. whose tips terminate in rolls 12 which tips are adapted to en-' gageperipheral groove 5 of container 1 passing over moutlr section. 6 whenq'disk element b is closed over 'container mouth. .c.= 1

The improvement to which this invention is directed. is in the ring element as adapted to circumscribe yieldable fingers Hand to compress rolled tips 12' thereof into: locking engagement by means of the joints 13; and 14. in-

fihgers 11- and' ring. wall 20" respectively. Engagements at these pointshold; finger tips 12 securely in and about peripheral groove 5 of correlative container mouth section- 67 and- 7.

The improved dual ring element, a of this invention may beformed from a fiatpiece of sheet stack in three operations as. illustrated byrneansof Figures 4, 5 and- 6-.

The first draw produces aring of. L l-shaped cross.sec-- tion. The secofid' draw' Figure 5) forms annular beads 16 and 15 at the free ends of the centers of these beads which lie in slightly different planes. In the third draw, base 17 of the U is drawn inwardly at a fixed height above (below) bead 15 to form an annular lip 18, of somewhat less diameter than the outer diameter of flat annulus 9 of domed disk element [2. The height of wall 20 from the terminus of bead 15 to the under side of lip 18 is designed to be equivalent in dimension to the distance from the top side of the fiat annulus 9 to the flat annular stop 4 of top c of containerand below peripheral groove 5 of 0. Base 17 of U-shaped dual ring section in Figure 3, demonstrates the correlation of the 7 novel ring with the prior art inner disk b and container diameter than that of bead 7 of 1 mouth when the container is closed, as illustrated in Figure 1. In closed position, inner disk element b is seated over mouth 6 and head 7 of container 1 by means of annular sealing gasket material'10 on the under side of annular section 9. Depending fingers 11 are circumscribed and compressed about container mouth 6 and terminal rolls 12 of fingers 11 are locked into contact with container peripheral grooves by means of inner wall 20 of ring a. The inner Wall 20 of dual ring a serves to provide essential compressive and locking action, as previously described. Note that lip 18 of ring a transfers downward force to gasket seal to an nular bead 17 of the container mouth until contact is made between the first or inner bead 15 and container stop 4. At this point pressure on the gasketing is arrested. As downward forces on the ringa exceed the point at which deformation begins in the funnel-like skirt flange 3 of container top 0, space existing between outer bead 16 and chime 2 of the container 1, left for insertion of an opening tool, is used up until chime 2 and head 16 are in direct contact. At this time pressure is then transferred directly to the container body wall.

Dual element container closures of the prior art, of commercial quality and gauge metal under test are permanently deformed at a loading of about 650 pounds per square inch. Using the same weight metal commercial container and the dual element closure as herein described, replacing the prior art single ring element with dual ring a, about six times the direct top loading can be anticipated without permanent deformation of any part of section c of the container. Additionally, automatic closure machinery as described in U. S. 2,734,673 is made more trouble-free in operation by the improvement provided in the dual ring of this invention.

Having described a method for the manufacture of my improved ring, its construction and method of use, what I claim is:

1. In a container and dual closure combination comprising a generally cylindrical container having a mouth interiorly of and conjoined with said container wall forming an upper chime, said mouth extending inwardly and upwardly from said chime to form a tapered throat terminating in an annular bead defining the lip of said container mouth, spaced below said opening an inwardly disposed annular groove defining a horizontal stop in said tapered throat, and said dual closure comprising an inner container-stoppering disk element about the periphery of which depend a plurality of flexible fingers, the tips of which are adapted to be distended outwardly over the top portion of said tapered throat to engage said annular groove, and a ring element adapted to circumscribe and compress said fingers into locked position in and about said container groove; the improvement in the ring element which comprises a dual walled ring of inverted generally U-shaped cross-section, the inner vertical annular wall of said ring originating in an annular bead extending vertically upwardly and drawn centrally inwardly at a fixed height to form an annular lip of lesser diameter than said wall, an annular top section extending horizontally outwardly from said lip to a radius substantially equivalent to the radius of the correlated container wall, a second annular wall depending vertically from the outer radius of said ring top section concentric with said first wall, said second wall terminating in a second annular head, said first and inner bead adapted to rest upon the horizontal terminus of the stop section below the peripheral groove of the container mouth and said second and outer bead adapted to superimposed alignment concentric with and substantially of the same diameter as the chime of said container.

2. In a container and dual closure combination comprising a generally cylindrical container having a mouth interiorly of and conjoined with said container wall forming an upper chime, said top extending inwardly and upwardly from said chime to form a tapered throat terminating in an annular bead defining the lip of said container mouth, spaced below said opening an inwardly disposed annular groove defining a horizontal stop in said tapered throat, and said dual closure comprising an inner container-stoppering disk element about the periphery of which depend a plurality of flexible fingers, the tips of which are adapted, to be distended outwardly over the top portion of said tapered throat to engage said annular groove, and a ring element adapted to circumscribe and compress said fingers into locked position in and about said container groove; the improvement in the ring element which comprises a dual walled ring of inverted generally U-shaped cross-section, the inner vertical annular wall of said ring originating in an annular bead extending vertically upwardly and drawn centrally inwardly at a fixed height to form an annular lip of lesser diameter than said wall adapted to rest upon and about the periphery of said inner disk element, an annular top section extending horizontally outwardly from said lip to a radius substantially equivalent to the radius of the correlated container wall, a second annular wall depending vertically from the outer radius of said ring top section concentric with said first wall, said second wall terminating in a second annular bead, said first and inner bead adapted to rest upon the hori zontal stop below the peripheral groove of the container mouth and said second and outer bead adapted to superimposed alignment concentric with and substantially of the same diameter as, but spaced apart from, the chime of said container.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Italy Oct. 6, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION July 22 1958 Patent NOo 2,,8M 2'76 James W, Dimmock ars in the printed specification It is hereby certified that error appe that the said Letters of the above numbered patent requiring correction and Patent should read as corrected below.

r "are container" read m art container Column 1 line 58 f0 line 59, for "adopt" read adapt Signed and sealed this 5th day of May 1959.,

(SEAL) Attest:

KARL Ho A E ROBERT C. WATSON Attesting Oificer Commissioner of Patents 

